Zohran Mamdani (guest)
👤 PersonAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
And these conversations that I've been having both since the primary, but also frankly, prior to the primary,
have been illuminating for me in both having an opportunity to meet many New Yorkers, especially Jewish New Yorkers, for whom their only impression of me was through a caricature.
Well, you know, I had the distinct pleasure of having around $30 million spent against me in the primary.
And it was $30 million that was spent in mailers, in TV ads.
There was a mailer sent by Andrew Cuomo's super PAC that artificially lengthened my beard.
And there was another mailer sent by another candidate.
And it specifically chose to feature a photo of me in a kurta.
And there was another mailer sent by another candidate that implied I was going to kill Jewish New Yorkers.
Part of the earlier conversation we were having about the Democratic Party, these are mailers that were sent in a Democratic primary.
And so if you're a Jewish New Yorker and you're receiving these kinds of mailers, you're opening an article that you're reading and you're reading this kind of a caricature of me.
I do not begrudge skepticism.
And what I've appreciated about these conversations is an opportunity to
to share who I am and the opinions and thoughts and commitments that may be in disagreement with those on the other end of the table, but at the very least can show that these are thoughts that are built on a belief in a universal system of human rights.
It's the opportunity to make clear that, you know, I've had a number of Jewish New Yorkers ask me,
You've said you recognize Israel's right to exist, but you won't recognize its right to exist as a Jewish state.
Would that be the case for Saudi Arabia?
And I've said, absolutely, it would be, because my belief— So your objections remain equal to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, as they do to Israel.
I'm not going to recognize its right to be a state with a hierarchy of citizenship on the basis, whether it be of religion or race.